Normal Variants

Normal Variants

The term "normal variants" refers to EEG waveforms that are considered to be normal findings, but whose presence is not required for an EEG to be normal. Some normal variants, such as mu or lambda, can be made to appear and disappear through the manipulation of the mental state of a conscious individual and as such, can provide additional reassurance of a healthy functioning brain. However, the primary reason to be familiar with normal variants is that many of them are all too often misinterpreted as indicating that a patient has epilepsy. Some of the waveforms most frequently misinterpreted as epileptiform are wickets and RMTTD.